It is known to provide coupons to encourage customers to shop at particular merchants and/or purchase particular products. For example, it is known that a manufacturer may place a coupon in a newspaper which is distributed to potential customers. The customer “cuts out” the coupon, sorts it and stores it with other coupons. Once in the store, the customer searches for the coupon in a stack of coupons of varying size and then searches for the product covered by the coupon. At the checkout stand the clerk examines the coupon's expiration date, verifies that the correct product was purchased, and subtracts the coupon's value from the purchase price. The clerk at some point in time performs a preliminary sort of the coupons by manufacturer and tallies them. The coupons are next sent to a clearing house that sorts and tallies all of the coupons for a store and sends them to the manufacturer for redemption. The manufacturer once again sorts and tallies the coupons before performing reimbursement.
The distribution and processing of coupons is also discussed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,854 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,739,514.